A whale watching boat spotted the mother with a calf that was alive and taking breaths on Tuesday, Taylor Shedd, program coordinator with the San Juan Islands-based organization Soundwatch, told Global News.

The Center for Whale Research arrived on the scene about half an hour after they learned a baby had been born.

“These whales are so critically endangered, we need that reproductive power in the future,” Shedd said.

“So to lose a female or a male, to lose any individual is horrible, but a female may be extra concerning.”

Soundwatch learned Wednesday that the mother was still carrying her calf, and took upon itself the task of ensuring she was safe.

Since then, for as long as the sun is up, they’ve watched a mother carry her dead offspring at the surface and below.

A female killer whale is seen in the waters off Vancouver Island pushing the body of her newborn calf in this July 25, 2018, handout photo.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Center for Whale Research, Kelley Balcomb-Bartok

Since the calf was found deceased, Soundwatch has been monitoring J35, watching to ensure she has space to move safely.

On Wednesday, she was travelling alone and displaying strange behaviour for an orca — breathing in an unusual way, Shedd said.

“She was very laboured in her breathing, taking these extra long breaths as she was at the surface,” he said.

Shedd observed more unusual breathing on Thursday — he would see her come to the surface, take a breath, and then see the calf roll off her back or drop out of her mouth before she took a few more breaths.

The whale would then take a “big, fluking dive” where she would show the bottom of her tail as she went “basically vertical” in the water.

“To me that suggests that the calf is very negatively buoyant and that she was having to dive really deep and bring it back up to the surface,” Shedd said.